Christmas in North Dakota

For Christmas, my brother Jesse and I drove home to North Dakota. We had a lot of fun staying at our parents apartment in Mandan, driving home to the old farm house in Tuttle and visiting with family and friends. My trumpet has been missing for years and my mom was very happy to find it for me, so now I have a trumpet (but no mouth piece). So maybe you will see me soon playing for a hot rock trumpet band (but don't count on getting an autograph). :) I hope you all had a great christmas and appreciate so much the chance to hear from so many of you.
Grandma Hazel Hagel - my dads mom - we had dinner with her christmas day.
After dinner Roger and Norene Sandberg came to visit with all of us, it was fun to hear all of their jokes and travel stories.
Norene is one of my dad's older sisters.
The day before we came home we were able to spend time with our Uncle Johnny Patterson, my mom's younger brother. It was fun to visit with him, hear how he is doing, and see the projects he has done around his home. He LOVES to remodel.
After visiting with Johnny, we went to visit the Riskedahls. This is Linda getting caught by the camera. They are my second parents. We are very close friends with them and all of their kids. Grandpa Geitzen, Linda's father, was my Santa Clause growing up - he would dress up and I had no idea it was him, until he would give me a kiss, then I knew exactly who it was - I didn't believe there was a real santa, but I loved playing along pretending there was one. All of us Danielson's grew up thinking that we were cousins with the Riskedahl kids, because we spent so much time together. We couldn't figure out why we weren't going to their house for Christmas, so we decided to ask mom why. She said that Christmas is aways spent with our Relatives - we thought it was rediculous to have to remind mom that the Riskedahls were our relatives - but she laughed and said we aren't related to the Riskedahls, they are just our friends. All six of us kids were floored - and we started crying. Now we just have to pretend we are related and call them our second family.